Nov. 5, 2011 -- There's a storm brewing on the sun's surface and it could unleash its magnetic fury on Earth within the next five days.
That ominous warning comes from solar scientists at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center who are tracking a huge group of sunspots that are slowly rotating to face our planet. As imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in Friday, this is the largest group of sunspots seen on the sun since 2005. The largest sunspot (pictured above) is 17-times the width of the Earth.
SCIENCE CHANNEL: Wonders of the Solar System: The Sun
Active region 1339 has been crackling with flare activity -- for now blasting the majority of its energy away from us -- but on Thursday, it showed solar astronomers what it's capable of; erupting with the most powerful type of flare.
The effects of the X-rays generated by the Nov. 3 X-class flare were detected in our upper atmosphere as waves of ionization altered the propagation of radio waves over Europe and the Americas, according to SpaceWeather.com.
Sunspots are the result of intense magnetic stress inside the sun. As we approach solar maximum (expected around 2013), we can expect to see more sunspots as intense magnetic fields break through the surface, exposing the cooler solar interior -- dark spots are the result.
THE DISCOVERNATOR: Amazing Facts Served Up Hot
Sunspots are found in regions of intense magnetic activity on the sun -- unsurprisingly known as "active regions." And it is active region 1339 that could put on an impressive fireworks display as it rotates across the disk of the sun, pointing directly at us at the halfway point. But will it erupt? For now, we have no idea -- it remains a risky game of (solar) Russian Roulette.
-- by Ian O'Neill.
Image (top): A view of the sun's photosphere through the eyes of the SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). The sunspot cluster (toward the left of the solar disk) is easily visible. Image (bottom): An image of the hot solar corona above the sunspots taken at approximately the same time as the image above. Long loops of magnetic flux connect the sunspots and spread from the active region. Credit: NASA/SDO
That ominous warning comes from solar scientists at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center who are tracking a huge group of sunspots that are slowly rotating to face our planet. As imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in Friday, this is the largest group of sunspots seen on the sun since 2005. The largest sunspot (pictured above) is 17-times the width of the Earth.
SCIENCE CHANNEL: Wonders of the Solar System: The Sun
Active region 1339 has been crackling with flare activity -- for now blasting the majority of its energy away from us -- but on Thursday, it showed solar astronomers what it's capable of; erupting with the most powerful type of flare.
The effects of the X-rays generated by the Nov. 3 X-class flare were detected in our upper atmosphere as waves of ionization altered the propagation of radio waves over Europe and the Americas, according to SpaceWeather.com.
Sunspots are the result of intense magnetic stress inside the sun. As we approach solar maximum (expected around 2013), we can expect to see more sunspots as intense magnetic fields break through the surface, exposing the cooler solar interior -- dark spots are the result.
THE DISCOVERNATOR: Amazing Facts Served Up Hot
Sunspots are found in regions of intense magnetic activity on the sun -- unsurprisingly known as "active regions." And it is active region 1339 that could put on an impressive fireworks display as it rotates across the disk of the sun, pointing directly at us at the halfway point. But will it erupt? For now, we have no idea -- it remains a risky game of (solar) Russian Roulette.
-- by Ian O'Neill.
Image (top): A view of the sun's photosphere through the eyes of the SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). The sunspot cluster (toward the left of the solar disk) is easily visible. Image (bottom): An image of the hot solar corona above the sunspots taken at approximately the same time as the image above. Long loops of magnetic flux connect the sunspots and spread from the active region. Credit: NASA/SDO
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